Find us on http://www.facebook.com/flightorg. On the 9th April,
2017, a man was forcibly removed from United Airlines Flight
3411 in Chicago, set for Louisville. While we'd normally say
that until we have all the information, we have no information
at all, the United response tends to confirm the incident as
described by passengers. United Airlines said that ... "Flight
3411 from Chicago to Louisville was overbooked. After our team
looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the
aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to
the gate. We apologize for the overbook situation."

It's a difficult situation. If a person refusing to leave were allowed
to stay, then passengers would never comply. If force has to be used to
remove a non-compliant passenger, then that's what has to be done.

Bumping passengers in favour of its own staff looks strange, but it may
be that if those staff weren't carried, it would have knock on effects
for other flights.

To my mind, the proper solution to the overbooking problem is either to
ban it outright (given that it's deliberate, not just a mistake), or to
require that the airline just keep offering more and more money until
they do get the needed volunteers. If that means they have to offer tens
of thousands of dollars, then so be it - that's the price of
overbooking.

There is absolutely no excuse for overbooking flights and bouncing
booked passengers with valid tickets. In this case they bounced him down
the aisle

If they didn't overbook, then there'd be many more flights with empty
seats when people didn't show up. If you were an airline exec wouldn't you
been looking at those seats, and wishing you could earn some money from
them.

The problem is not the overbooking, but how it's handled when, as
occasionally happens, too many people actually turn up.

Sylvia.

Airlines have been overbooking for years. It's nothing new. Through
experience
the airlines know a certain percentage of booked passengers will either not
show
or cancel at the last minute. Keeping the seats filled increases profits and
most of the
time there are no conflicts. The problem was United's, the paying customers
should
have come first and United should have found another way to get the aircrew
to
their destination.